Fall 2009 Registration Guide
Getting started
Advising week begins March 23. Don’t wait until the last minute to consult your advisor - give thought to your schedule before the meeting. Since sabbaticals and the arrival of new faculty may have changed your assignment, be sure to check your advisor assignment on the bulletin boards in Ryland Hall.
Registration dates
The first round of online registration will begin March 30.
Major/minor requirements
For major and minor requirements, check out the department's major/minor requirements. Please note that History 100 is required for the major - AP credit will not exempt you from that requirement.
If you are not on the advising list, consult with Mrs. Debbie Govoruhk in Ryland 319. If you are a double major or have only recently declared a history major, your PIN might have gone to your other or previous advisor.
Course list
Courses are listed by subject area for the upcoming fall and spring semesters. Detailed descriptions for each section of History 100 in the fall are available in the complete course list - just click on HIST 100 in the list. Please note that the spring semester schedule is tentative and incomplete, thus subject to change. We do not yet know, for example, all the courses to be taught by new or visiting faculty.
Internships
Internships are available at the many libraries, museums and historic sites in the Richmond area. If you wish to complete an internship, please consult with Professor John Treadway right away. Do not delay, as securing an internship involves applying to, and having an interview at, your chosen agency.
Directed study
To qualify to take History 401 you must have completed five history courses. To register, you must secure an agreement from a faculty member to direct your work; once you have secured the agreement, Debbie Govoruhk can key in your permission to enroll.
Sabbaticals
Professors Loo, Sackley, and Yanikdag will be on leave this semester.
Joining us this fall will be Manuella Meyer. She received her B.A. from Brown University and her Ph.D. from Yale University. Her dissertation examines the development of psychiatric care in Rio de Janeiro in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a window on the processes of modernization and state-building. She will be teaching courses on the history of Latin America.
Visiting faculty
Visiting us this semester will be Magnus Persson from Vaxjo University in Sweden and Istvan Nagy, recently at Oxford University. Dr. Persson will teach a course on the United States and the Middle East; Dr. Nagy one about early Islam.
New courses and instructors
The following courses will be taught for the first time or by new instructors:
- History 219 Work in 20th- Century America. Professor Yellin. An exploration of the connections between work and political, economic, and cultural life in America in the last century, addressing such questions as: How did the meaning of work change for Americans in the twentieth century? How did work generate protests, legislation, electoral triumphs, and political falls from grace?
- History 262 Modern Latin America. Professor Meyer. An examination of the history of Latin America after Spanish rule, from 1821 to the present, focusing on the development of social inequality, civil conflict, and revolution. Cultural and political developments in countries like Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, and Venezuela will be discussed as well as the U.S. role in the region, especially in Central America. The historical construction and political and social influence of hierarchies based on race, gender, and economic position will also be explored.
- History 299-4 The United States and the Middle East. Dr. Persson. An examination of U.S policy and action in the Middle East from World War II to the present, focusing on the American approach to such issues as decolonization, Soviet influence in the region, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the politics of oil, and the rise of political Islam. Attention will also be paid to the way the U.S. has been viewed through Middle Eastern eyes.
- History 399 Problems in the Formation of Early Islamic Civilization. Dr. Nagy. An exploration ofthe evolution of social and conceptual structures of the early Islamic civilization through analysis ofthe principal characteristics of tribal and imperial models, the historical circumstances leading to the rise of Islam and the Islamic conquests, and the process whereby the ancient concepts and systems of the conquerors and the vanquished fused into a new synthesis.
Residential education courses
As part of an initiative to integrate academic and residential life two history courses will be taught in Lakeview Hall as part of Sophomore College:
- History 299-1 Activism in the American South since Reconstruction. Dr. Ooten
- History 305 The Urban Crisis in America. Dr. Howard
Priority for enrollment in these courses goes to Lakeview residents.
Research seminars
Two research seminars will be offered this semester:
- History 400-1 The Medieval Family. Professor Drell. An analysis of family structures c.1000-1500, examining changes in the formation of households, in attitudes towards family, and in the role of the family in European society. Topics will include kinship, roles of women, inheritance, the household, lineage, marriage, fertility, infant abandonment, childhood and aging. Among the principal themes will be the transformations in the perception and function of family and kin ties, in the influence of the Church in defining the family unit, and in marriage and inheritance strategies.
- History 400-2 Imperial Critiques: Scandal and Activism in the British Empire. Professor Summers.
An examination of how in the late 19th and early 20th century, Britain’s press and public commented on and sought to affect imperial policy and respond to some of the many dire realities of the world around them. The seminar will look at how and when activists mobilized popular opinion, both in Britain and beyond, what they were able to accomplish, and what limits they faced. To what extent did press coverage, parliamentary questions, and humanitarian concerns shape the concerns and practices of “new imperialism”? Cases studied by the class as whole will include debates over social, economic, and labor policy; and particularly vicious military tactics, such as clashes over sati in India, King Leopold’s Congo, and colonial counterinsurgency warfare. Individual projects will deploy seminar themes to examine a variety of imperial interventions in Africa and Asia.
Permission of the instructor is required for enrollment in these seminars.
Related courses
History majors are always encouraged to take courses in such related disciplines as religion, English, political science, sociology, philosophy and art history. Be sure to look for courses of interest in those departments.
Thinking ahead
The Visiting Freeman Professor for Spring 2010 will be William Doyle of Bristol University, England, and expert on the French revolution and the Napoleonic era.